TEDDY MADISON

Teddy Madison is a queer tragicomedy with circles and triangles of all sorts, where the characters get lost in layers of intimate, sensory memories. As a work of fiction, it is a utopian tale, compared to how mainstream society still views gender, sexuality, and love. We see Teddy in the present, at age 29, and get to know him, as his memoirist, Mrs. Fairfax builds her manuscript using Teddy's diary, and years of correspondence. The timeline is 1916 to 1930, though some flashbacks take us even earlier.  The story is set mostly in New York, but also in Paris, London, Baltimore, St. Albans, and Louisville. It has historical details, coupled with social elements that have yet to exist in our world today, but we are getting much closer. The characters comically combat struggles in marriage and family life, while coping with tragedy and reliving their misdeeds. My style and inspiration for Teddy Madison are a reflection of contemporary society, projected into one of the most glamorous eras of our past. 

A memoir of truths, years of denial, a distorted mind, painting in a world of gray; the Freudian patient with a naval husband; a senseless affair, an unattainable love, a precious daughter, and a conflicted sphere of influence, are just a day in Teddy Madison’s life.

Fun Facts

Teddy Madison started as a short story that I wrote for a creative writing seminar in college in 2008, and developed from there. Originally, Harrison’s name was Graham, and at first Teddy’s brother Danny was a sister named Claire. All of the Characters with names that begin with the letter C are meant to be parallels or versions of one another, all being so close to Teddy and affecting him in different ways.

Preface

Teddy Madison goes beyond the oppressed queer and LGBT+ existence, capturing a fresh outlook on a past era, with true inclusivity, in a real place in time. We can, therefore, see how life should have been, with liberty and justice for all. In this story, the Roaring 20s are embellished with an authentic setting, but with an unreality that’s void of mainstream expectations on gender, sexuality, or relationships. These aspects are finally normalized. Teddy Madison is a work of fiction, with sprinklings of true people and events that took place in the early 20th century.

As the author, I inspire you to understand new social norms when presented with a modern period piece and ask: If a few decisions were made differently, how would society have been 100 years ago and today? In this tale of unreality, you ideally will see beyond how things were, and think of the potential for possibility, for love is universal but not always kind.

There remains the complexity of subjectivity. What we don’t know about ourselves and others is in our blind spots. We become so close to people, and then we lose them, and we learn to live with grief. We also discover how to appreciate what we have, and who we love, and how to think and act rationally. A huge obstacle in life is not letting grief destroy us.

In this escapist read, the characters want to do what’s right, but they also want more out of life; they display the conflict that goes on inside a person, as we’re all multifaceted by nature. Altering in life is brought on by intimate interactions, experiences, and feelings toward and with others.

A sizable portion of Teddy’s life is associated with the fundamentals of the avant-garde. In attempting to capture his life in a memoir within the story, I reference shared concepts and our ways of thinking about them. Our protagonist sees his memoir as a work of absurdities that deals with serious issues. The writing process brings on massive nostalgia and confusion for his relatives. Playing with literary form is a parody. The conventional and historical happenings, between the years of 1916 to 1930, juxtapose the parallel world that Teddy lives in, and that he must rewrite in the present.

Teddy has difficulty deciphering reality from what his mind constructs. He imposes these converted forms or beliefs, and demands that readers accept them as actions, improvements, and truths for his memoir. After studying at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, immersed in the privatized world of numerous galleries and salons, from 1918 to 1922, Teddy opened his own salon in New York. The other settings in the story are constrained to some kind of protocol, which imposes itself upon everything.

As the happenings of his memoir are examined, we see the objective replacing the subjective, which is terrifying for Teddy. This is my authorial intent because I know exactly what readers will find. The somewhat bizarre narrative surfaces of Teddy’s life have an underlying sense of what he knows ahead of time, and much of Teddy’s unreality is just as confusing for readers as it is for him. Certain people in the story represent truth, emphasizing rational ideas, especially in Edenridge House after Teddy’s wedding in 1922. His relationship with Harrison was destined to be and was written in the stars. In family life, Teddy no longer created his own sense of artistic form.

Part of my literary mission is to surprise readers by combating a series of biased views, and by including elements of marital life that still do not exist today for queer or same-sex couples, and within the Catholic faith. This has been riveting, but also a harsh reminder of the current inequality in my life as a gay male Roman Catholic.

Will you read and appreciate Teddy Madison’s story and still want to love him? His memoir contains fragments of his experiences and encounters, which are curated from his diary, and from years of letters; these collide with the human senses in reaction to the events that personally affected him. He must also contend with the architect of his memoir, Mrs. Fairfax, and her quest for accuracy.

You’re in for a world of imagery; the most well-done description uses the senses, regarding insight, the perception of others, conflicted minds, and collective struggles. Our story is a delicate portrayal of sensitive topics, that provides a colorful view into the human condition.

I’ll be adding and updating more passages as the editing process goes on. Stay tuned!